U.N. report calls for more money for birth control

WASHINGTON -- Lack of financing for global birth control programs resulted in an estimated 52 million unintended pregnancies last year, nearly half of which ended in abortion, according to a United Nations report to be released today.

The report makes the case for an additional $3.9 billion in annual funding for contraception and family planning. That increase, 55 percent over the $7.1 billion spent this year, would prevent an estimated 142,000 pregnancy-related deaths annually, according to the report, "State of World Population 2004."

The report details the work of the U.N. Population Fund, or UNPF, which focuses on the link between population and poverty, reproductive health, family planning and related global issues. Near the top of its agenda is a program aimed at providing birth control options to couples who seek them.

An estimated 137 million women who want to delay their next birth or avoid another pregnancy are unable to access contraceptives, while another 64 million such women are using less effective measures, the report states, based on information from 169 countries. Providing birth control pills and condoms to these women would prevent 23 million unplanned births, 22 million induced abortions and 1.4 million infant deaths, the UNPF estimates.

The United States provides no funding for the programs because of legislation prohibiting taxpayer support for forced sterilization and abortion. While the UNPF does not condone those practices, the State Department has concluded that such conduct takes place in China, a UNPF recipient. China denies the charges, insisting that forced abortions and sterilizations are not an official part of its aggressive population-control policies.

In addition to family planning, there is a need for improved care and expanded services for pregnant women, half a million of whom die each year from abortions, childbirth or various pregnancy-related maladies. Worldwide, one-third of pregnant women receive no health care and 60 percent of births take place outside of health facilities.

Overall, gaps in reproductive and sexual health care account for nearly one in every five illnesses and premature deaths and one-third of illnesses and deaths among women, the report concludes.

The annual U.N. population report describes a world populated by a record number of teenagers -- 1.2 billion between the ages of 10 and 19 -- but also rapidly graying. Over the next 50 years, the percentage of people older than 65 will nearly double in North America, rising from about 12 percent to nearly 21 percent. In Europe, the number of people over 65 will go from about 13 percent to 28 percent.

Among the report's other findings:

The world population, now 6.4 billion, is growing by 76 million per year. While that's down from the mid-1990s peak of 82 million, the U.N. projects that it will grow to 8.9 billion by 2050. That's an increase of 2.5 billion, an amount equal to the total world population in 1950.

An estimated 38 million people have AIDS or are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes it. Another 20 million have died of AIDS complications since the pandemic was identified two decades ago.

AIDS is ravaging parts of Africa. In seven African countries, more than one in five adults is HIV positive. In those countries, the population is projected to be 35 percent lower by 2025 than it would be without the disease, which will pull down life expectancy in those countries by an average of 29 years, a 41 percent decrease.